But how is it that this Jew of Celsus could say
that Jesus concealed Himself? For his words regarding Him are
these: “And who that is sent as a messenger ever conceals
himself when he ought to make known his message?” Now, He
did not conceal Himself, who said to those who sought to apprehend Him,
“I was daily teaching openly in the temple, and ye laid no hold
upon Me.” But having once already answered this charge of
Celsus, now again repeated, we shall content ourselves with what we
have formerly said. We have answered, also, in the preceding
pages, this objection, that “while he was in the body, and no one
believed upon him, he preached to all without intermission; but when he
might have produced a powerful belief in himself after rising from the
dead, he showed himself secretly only to one woman, and to his own boon
companions.”33933393τοῖς ἑαυτοῦ
θιασώταις. Now it is not
true that He showed Himself only to one woman; for it is stated in the
Gospel according to Matthew, that “in the end of the Sabbath, as
it began to dawn towards the first day of the week, came Mary
Magdalene, and the other Mary, to see the sepulchre. And, behold,
there had been a great earthquake: for the angel of the Lord had
descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the
stone.”33943394Matt. xxviii. 1, 2. And, shortly
after, Matthew adds: “And, behold, Jesus met
them”—clearly meaning the afore-mentioned
Marys—“saying, All hail. And they came and held Him
by the feet, and worshipped Him.”33953395Matt. xxviii. 9. And we answered, too, the charge, that
“while undergoing his punishment he was seen by all, but after
his resurrection only by one,” when we offered our defence of the
fact that “He was not seen by all.” And now we might
say that His merely human attributes were visible to all men but those
which were divine in their nature—I speak of the attributes not
as related, but as distinct33963396λέγω δὲ οὐ
περὶ τῶν
σχέσιν πρὸς
ἕτερα
ἐχόντων,
ἀλλὰ περὶ
τῶν κατὰ
διαφοράν.—were not
capable of being received by all. But observe here the manifest
contradiction into which Celsus falls. For having said, a little
before, that Jesus had appeared secretly to one woman and His own boon
companions, he immediately subjoins: “While undergoing his
punishment he was seen by all men, but after his resurrection by one,
whereas the opposite ought to have happened.” And let us
hear what he means by “ought to have happened.” The
being seen by all men while undergoing His punishment, but after His
resurrection only by one individual, are opposites.33973397ἐναντίον τὸν
μὲν
κολαζόμενον
πᾶσιν
ἑωρᾶσθαι,
ἀναστάντα δὲ
ἑνί. The Benedictine editor reads
τὸν μὲν
κολαζόμενον,
and Bohereau proposes ἐναντίον τῷ
κολαζόμενον
μὲν, etc. Now, so far as his language conveys a
meaning, he would have that to take place which is both impossible and
absurd, viz., that while undergoing His punishment He should be seen
only by one individual, but after His resurrection by all men! or else
how will you explain his words, “The opposite ought to have
happened?”